Evaluation of Polysaccharides Safety and Potential Bioactivities Using Zebrafish: A Review

In recent years, polysaccharides, as a class of natural biopolymers mainly from plant/aquatic organism sources, have received increasing attention due to their diverse health benefits, thus with potential for nutraceutical and functional foods. At the same time, their safety has not yet been adequately addressed, yielding uncertainty regarding their quality and safety. As a vertebrate model, zebrafish are favored for their rapid development, high reproductive rate, transparency, and genetic tractability, which are extremely beneficial for safety evaluation and functional evaluation. In the zebrafish model, more and more polysaccharides derived from plant/aquatic food have shown significant functional potentials, such as melanin production, osteoporosis, obesity, etc., providing valuable insights into health benefits. This review aims to summarize functional and safety studies of polysaccharides from plant/aquatic organism sources based on the zebrafish model, and to promote their development into novel nutritional and functional foods. This could open exciting new avenues for food research, promising to reveal new functional applications and deepen our understanding of complex biological systems.